Tag Archives: Aces

Eskro is a graffiti writer active in and around Montreal, and one of the most talented and prolific of his generation. Until the end of 2016 he was a member of the multi-disciplinary crew Astred Collective, but early in 2017 he started representing a new crew called TFS (or 24/7 – twenty-four/seven). At some point early in 2018 he also started representing YU8 (why you hate?) when a friendship between members of TFS and YU8 led to some writers from each one being admitted in the other crew.

Eskro has very little presence online, but you can follow him on Instagram.

Collaboration between Paynt (top right), Hozek (bottom left), Sepan (top left), Magic (bottom right) and Gost (bottom letters). Because Magic’s part is at a disadvantage in this shot, see below for close-up.

The “Jailspot” is the name given by graffiti writers and urban explorers to two contiguous abandoned buildings on Henri-Bourassa at the level of the now closed Tanguay prison. These buildings were not actually part of the closed prison, they belonged to Transport Québec who once used them as hangars for heavy machinery. They appear to have been used in the recent past as offices and warehouse space. The westernmost of the two is older than the other one which seems to have been built around 2006-2007. For the following years the latter new construction was used for sporadic warehouse sales.

Business must not have been very good, the buildings were left unused as early as 2011-2012 and signs of graffiti action started appearing, first outside then inside. Within a few years the two buildings were completely taken over by explorers and writers/artists. Everything except the warehouse at the front of the easternmost building quickly deteriorated, through the combined actions of vandals and rain/snow through broken doors and windows as well as collapsed roofs. The two buildings were finally gradually demolished over the spring and summer of 2016 to make space for the construction of controversial residential/commercial towers.

If you have any additional information about this spot, feel free to write in and contribute to this article.

The gallery below is divided by rooms and other areas where artists left their mark. The names of the rooms are not official ones, I just came up with them for comprehensive purposes. A plan of the spot can be seen below, at the top of the gallery.

This image gallery brings together 100 of the best pieces of Montreal graffiti from 2016. From a long list of over 1000, I created a ‘short’ list of 250 which I painstakingly trimmed down to the 100 seen below. The selection was done from my own personal favourites as well as those of my followers on Instagram. Of course this list was put together from what I was actually able to photograph, so keep in mind that it may lack some great work that just slipped between the cracks.

It was already difficult selecting 100 pieces, it was impossible to sort them in order of preference, so they are shown here in alphabetical order. To ensure that the list wasn’t filled with only work from a few well-loved writers, I have set a maximum of 4 pieces per artist. Collaborations by two, three or four artists under one common theme count as one entry (which means that I managed to cheat my way into actually including a bit more than 100 pieces!).